Friday, August 29, 2014

The
humblest and the most unseen activity in the world can be the true worship of
God.Work and worship literally become
one.Our chief end is to glorify God and
to enjoy Him for ever; and we carry out that function when we do what God sent
us into the world to do.Work well done
rises like a hymn of praise to God.This
means that the doctor on her rounds, the scientist in his laboratory, the
teacher in her classroom, the musician at his music, the artist at her canvas,
the retail associate at his counter, the typist at her computer, the mechanic
in his shop, the stay-at-home mom or dad in the kitchen -- all who are doing
the work of the world as it should be done are joining in a great act of
worship.--
adapted from William Barclay in The Revelation of John, vol. 1#3498

Thursday, August 28, 2014

What
if God really is at work in every moment, in every place?What if your job is just to jump into the
river?What if your job is to figure
out, from one moment to the next, how to stay in the flow?How to keep yourself aware and submitted to
God’s Spirit so that rivers of living water flow through your belly, through
the core of your being?The
apostle Paul gives a simple command, which in a sense is all we need to do: “Do
not quench the Spirit.”The Spirit is
already at work in you.Jesus says if
you have come to Him, if you are a follower of His, the Spirit is there.He is bigger than you; He is stronger than
you; He is more patient with your failures and your gaps and your inadequacies
and your pretending than you are.He is
committed to helping you 24/7/365.So
Paul says, in a sense, your only job is not getting in His way.Just don’tquench the Spirit.-- John Ortberg in The
Me I Want to Be#3497

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

"You
must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to
speak, slow to anger;…" (James 1:19)Seek
first to understand, then to be understood. Most
people do not listen with the intent to understand; they
listen with the intent to reply.--
Stephen R. Covey#3496

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

The
first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening
to them. Just as love of God begins with listening to [God's] Word, so the
beginning of love for the [community of believers] is learning to listen to
them... Many people are looking for an ear that will listen. They do not find
it among [some] Christians, because these Christians are talking where they
should be listening. But [the one] who can no longer listen to his brother [and
sister] will soon be no longer listening to God either; they will be doing
nothing but prattle in the presence of God too.-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, by
Geffrey B. Kelly in Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works#3495

Monday, August 25, 2014

"In the same way, let your light shine before
others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in
heaven." (Matthew 5:16 NRSV)God wants us to be His lights in the world. The
best lights we can be. With God as the power source, we're to shine in whatever
capacity we can. It may be a bright radiance, a warm glow, a piercing
reflection, or a steady beam. Different individuals with diverse personalities,
strengths, and weaknesses will display God's light with varying intensities.
But it's genuine light, all the same, and this darkened world can never have
too much. Let it shine!--
Joni Eareckson Tada in Glorious Intruder#3494

Friday, August 22, 2014

God's
love has a piercing quality, a persevering element, an assertive and searching
aspect.God yearns for us, woos us,
reaches for us.God's grace has the
generative power to pardon, transform, redeem, and perfect, and it pushes and
pursues.God's love is not something
sitting on a shelf that we reach for, but a truth at the heart of life that
reaches for us.God's grace interrupts
with a compelling, propelling, motivating, and mobilizing quality.It has the power, if we let it, to break open
our hearts, get inside of us, change us, and then work its way through us to
others.-- Robert Schnase in Five
Practices of Fruitful Living#3493

Thursday, August 21, 2014

It
goes without saying that Christianity has a perception problem.At the heart of the problem is the simple
fact that Christians are more known for what we’re against than what we’re for.But the real problem isn’t perception.We as Christians are often quick to point out
what’s wrong with our culture.And we
certainly need the moral courage to stand up for what’s right in the face of
what’s wrong.I live [in Washington,
D.C.] in the bastion of political
correctness, where it is wrong to say that something is wrong.And that’s wrong.If we have to choose between political
correctness and biblical correctness, we must choose biblical correctness every
time.But before confronting what’s
wrong with our culture, we need to be humble enough, honest enough, and
courageous enough to repent of what’s wrong with us.-- Mark Batterson in PRIMAL:
A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity#3492

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

"When this perishable body puts on
imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that
is written will be fulfilled:'Death
has been swallowed up in victory.''Where, O death, is your victory?Where, O death, is your sting?'The sting of death is sin, and the power of
sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:54-57 NRSV)No
one who is fit to live need fear to die.Poor, timorous, faithless souls that we are!How we shall smile at our vain alarms, when
the worst has happened!To us here,
death is the most terrible word we know.But when we have tasted its reality, it will mean to us birth,
deliverance, a new creation of ourselves.It will be what health is to the sick man.It will be what home is to the exile.It will be what the loved one given back is
to the bereaved.As we draw near to it,
a great solemn gladness should fill our hearts.It is God’s great morning lighting up the sky.--
GeorgeSprings Merriam (1843-1914) in A
Living Faith [1876]#3491

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

God
is full of surprises. Mere superficial pressures never determine life's
outcome… If you are intimately linked with the living God of the universe, you
don't need to worry about what the crowd is doing -- or even what the king is
doing. The same God who created the world is able to carry you through and to
work out every situation of your life, no matter how impossible it may seem.--
Ray Stedman in Adventuring Through the Bible#3490

Monday, August 18, 2014

"For
all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not
receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a
spirit of adoption. When we cry, 'Abba! Father!' it is that very Spirit bearing
witness with our spirit that we are children of God,…" (Romans 8:14-16)As
I get older, I find that I am becoming more like my father. People say that I
look more like my father. I find myself saying things that sound just like what
my father said to me when I was a child. I find myself adopting some of the
attitudes and values of my father. Like father, like son.The
power of family links to influence us in subtle and obvious ways is strong. The
influence can be positive or negative. Some traits or genes we would prefer not
to inherit, like a temper or a predisposition to diabetes. I might like to
inherit my parent’s patience or a gift for music.Paul
suggests that we have a spiritual father since becoming a Christian. We have
been adopted by God, grafted into a new family tree. When we cry out to God,
using the intimate and familiar phrase “Abba,” the same salutation Jesus used,
it is as if our very souls know that we are God’s children. That’s the proof!
Our souls know at the deepest level to whom we belong.-- R. Scott Sullender in The
Upper Room Disciplines 2012: A Book of Daily Devotions. Copyright (c) 2011
by Upper Room Books. All rights reserved. Used by permission.#3489

Friday, August 15, 2014

Jesus
looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for
God all things are possible.” (Mark 10:27)Child
of God, learn a family secret. God specializes in things we think are totally
impossible.-- Charles Swindoll#3488

Thursday, August 14, 2014

One night in a church service a young woman felt
the tug of God at her heart. She responded to God's call and accepted Jesus as
her Lord and Savior. The young woman had a very rough past, involving alcohol,
drugs, and prostitution. But, the change in her was evident. As time went on
she became a faithful member of the church. She eventually became involved in
the ministry, teaching young children. It was not very long until this faithful
young woman had caught the eye and heart of the pastor's son. The relationship
grew and they began to make wedding plans. This is when the problems began.You see, about one half of the church did not think
that a woman with a past such as hers was suitable for a pastor's son. The
church began to argue and fight about the matter. So they decided to have a
meeting. As the people made their arguments and tensions increased, the meeting
was getting completely out of hand.The
young woman became very upset about all the things being brought up about her
past. As she began to cry the pastor's son stood to speak. He could not bear
the pain it was causing his wife-to-be. He began to speak and his statement was
this: " My fiancée's past is not what is on trial here. What you are
questioning is the ability of the blood of Jesus to wash away sin. Today you
have put the blood of Jesus on trial. So, does it wash away sin or not?"
The whole church began to weep as they realized that they had been slandering
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.Too often, even as Christians, we bring up the past
and use it as a weapon against our brothers and sisters. Forgiveness is a very
foundational part of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. If the blood of Jesus
does not cleanse the other person completely then it cannot cleanse us
completely. If that is the case, then we are all in a lot of trouble.What can wash away my sins, nothing but the blood
of Jesus... end of case!!!-- Author Unknown#3487

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

“Now therefore fear the Lord
and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your
fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord… Choose
this day whom you will serve,… But as for me and my house, we will serve the
Lord.”(Joshua 24:14-15)In St. Louis, Missouri,
there is a railroad switchyard.One
particular switch there begins with just the thinnest piece of steel to direct
a train away from one main track to another.If you were to follow those two tracks, however, you would find that one
ends in San Francisco and the other ends in New York, two very
different destinations, all because of one tiny switch in a switchyard in the
middle of the country!Here is where God's Word
comes in, it directs us to a very different destination than this world offers,
but we can't stay on the right track unless we make the choice to switch the
track from this world to eternity.What's your destination?-- Quoted by Dr. Anthony E. Loveless in And Who
Will Follow#3486

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Remember,
God created two perfect children and raised them in a perfect environment, yet
both of them rebelled against the will of God.But if God had to do it all over again, I believe God would do the same
thing.Why?Because if and when we do decide to do God's
will, and if and when we do choose to love God with all of our hearts and souls
and minds (Matthew 22:37), our Creator experiences a joy that infinitely
abounds.At
those times when you regret that your children have wills of their own and the
power to rebel, consider that without free will they could never really love
you.That's what God wants to teach
us.Don't
despair!Remember, as that Great
American philosopher Yogi Berra once said, "It ain't over 'till it's
over!"Even when we think all is
lost, it really isn't.--
Tony Campolo in Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God#3485

Monday, August 11, 2014

"Amazing
grace, how sweet the sound,That
saved a wretch like me.I
once was lost but now am found,Was
blind but now I see."(Amazing
Grace)I
am not what I ought to be.I am not what
I want to be.I am not what I hope to
be.But still, I am not what I used to
be.And by the grace of God, I am what I
am.--
John Newton (1725-1807)#3484

Friday, August 8, 2014

The simplest illustration
I've come across to articulate what sets Christianity apart from other
religions is called "Do versus Done."I tell people who are on the Earning-Grace Plan that "religion is
spelled D-O.At the end of the day, it's
all about whether you do enough right things to earn God's favor.To get in God's good graces, the thinking
goes, you have to do this and do that and strive and sacrifice and clean up
your act and make all sorts of promises.""But Christianity, on
the other hand," I say to people, "is spelled D-O-N-E.The Bible says that what Christ did on the
cross is enough.He did what you could
never do -- He uniquely satisfied God's requirement for a perfect sacrifice to
take care of our past, present, and future sin -- and if you receive what He
accomplished, then not only will you be 'in God's good graces,' but your life
will be made brand new.Because of what
Christ did on the cross, your sins can be forgiven and you can find favor in
God's eyes right here, right now."-- Bill Hybels in Just Walk Across the Room#3483

Thursday, August 7, 2014

"Has
not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God,
the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness
of our proclamation, to save those who believe… We proclaim Christ crucified,…
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser
than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength." (1
Corinthians 1:20b-25 NRSV)Scripture
nowhere condemns the acquisition of knowledge. It is the wisdom of this world,
not its knowledge, that is foolishness with God...The history of philosophy is a story of
contradictory, discarded hypotheses...Many of them have failed to avail themselves of that which would unravel
every knot and solve every problem, namely, the revelation of God in Christ as
given in the Holy Scriptures.--
Harry A. Ironside#3482

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Jesus
said, "I leave you peace; My peace I give you… So don't let your hearts be
troubled or afraid." (John 14:27)We
serve the God who designed the universe and set our world in motion.But those hands that hung the stars in the
heavens also wiped away the tears of the widow and the leper.And they will wipe away your tears as
well.--
Max Lucado#3481

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Welcome to SOUND BITES

By David T. Wilkinson

Over the years I have collected quotes that pertain to the Christian faith and life in general. As I have read or studied what others have written, I have been struck by the profound thought that is captured in their few short words. These quotes have been shared through SOUND BITES Ministry™ , a five-day-a-week inspirational e-mail ministry, and now are shared through this blog as well. You will also find us on Facebook by clicking SOUND BITES Ministry on Facebook.

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How SOUND BITES came to be

During Lent 1999 God prompted me to think about a new idea as to how I might share these thoughts with a broader audience. At the same time, our family was experiencing the first anniversary of the death of our son, Dustin, who died at the age of sixteen from a brain tumor. So, beginning on that anniversary, March 29, 1999 we began an e-mail ministry in memory of Dustin that we call SOUND BITES: Something to chew on that is good for the soul™. Five days a week, Monday through Friday, I share one of these quotes with subscribers. Hopefully recipients find something of faith and life to think about and chew on, which feeds their soul and helps them grow spiritually. Since its inception, over 4,000 daily quotes have been sent out. The subscriber list continues to grow numerically and geographically with subscribers in every state in the U.S., and also in Canada, Mexico, and numerous other countries around the world. Currently more than 2000 subscribers receive SOUND BITES directly via e-mail and many others second hand. Now through this blog we expand our outreach even more. To read comments on the 13th anniversary of SOUND BITES Ministry™, click 13th Anniversary Comments.